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Ok, I'm still new to Alamy here, how are you searching to check on your rank?

Ok, I'm still new to Alamy here, how are you searching to check on your rank?

As Mark says above, put BHZ into your keywords of ONE image per pseudo but it is supposed to be in the essential keywords only. This will just give you a rough indication of rank but is quite useful especially if you have several pseudos so you can see how their performance compares.

Pearl

But ensure the images you use are RM, not RF...

Then search on BHF the following working day, take the tick out of the RF box and use the "Relevant" search button. See where your image is

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Back one page, from 3 to 4, compared to July 2012 (the last time I've checked my rank). Probably others have improved, because my sales and zooms remained pretty the same. Or it's due to having added about 15% more images to my collection in the mean time (with no sales or zooms from the new images).

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Only one active pseudo (one for deletions) and remaining in mid table 7 obscurity - probably accurately reflects the quality and content of my portfolio.

I'm not prepared to hire models or helicopters, climb high mountains, get up before dawn, go out after dark, go to scary places, carry a tripod, or chase news events etc. Sales have been slowly increasing. Can't complain really.

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A while back, Alamy instituted a "Ranking system" for pseudonyms which essentially determines which pseudonyms appear higher up in searches (ie which images appear first) - your rank is important as many buyers do not look at that many images when deciding which image to buy so the sooner your images appear in searches, the more likely you are to sell. If your pseudonym has a good rank your images appear early; if your rank is poor, then they are buried near the bottom of sometimes several hundred pages of images depending on the search term used.

The ranking system, to my understanding, is made up of many different factors which I think include the following: number of image sales, value of, and particularly high value image sales, and CTR ratio (the ratio of the number of zooms to the number of views your images have over a period of time). Since zooms are likely to show buyer-interest in your images the higher the ratio (ie your CTR), the greater interest there is in your images and (in theory anyway), the more likely you are to make sales.

Alamy have never explicitly explained exactly what factors make up alamyrank, so several years ago a system was suggested, by contributors, whereby those contributors who were interested could try and ascertain their rank. Which is what BHZ refers to.

For each pseudonym you have, choose ONE image which is RM, not RF. Put the letters BHZ at the beginning of the essential keyword field, and nowhere else. The following working day, type BHF in the search field, search only on RM images, and choose the relevant shiny button. About 23 or so pages of images at 120/page will appear. Scroll through them to find your image for each pseudonym you have, and see where they appear compared with everyone elses.

Alamy reassess alamyrank approx. every 100 days, and a "re-rank" occurs. The rank apparently reflects that pseudonyms performance over the previous 300 days, so every 100 days, pseudonyms' rank changes depending how they have been doing.

The reason the acronym "BHZ" was chosen was because Tony Collins, an Alamy contributor found that it did not refer to anything else (ie had no other meaning) and therefore would not be searched by anyone for any other reason than this.

In the end, because no contributor fully understands all the factors involved in alamyrank, and Alamy will not fully explain it for obvious reasons, it can only be a blunt instrument, but it is useful to help one follow ones own pseudonym progress over a period of time.

Most people recognise that if ones BHZ is on a very low page, their images often do not feature near the top in searches where many images are involved,(see Redsnappers posting in this thread), but on the other hand if you supply images which are of "niche" subjects, and there are not that many found for the search term, then your alamyrank is much less important.

When a contributor who is new to alamy appears, or a long-term contributor forms a new pseudonym, then that pseudonym initailly is given an average rank (about halfway down in BHZ), and will remain there for a period of time - I suspect for the 300 days till it has acquired enough "evidence" to either be then moved up or down in the rankings after that

As I say, this is my understanding, and it can only be an approximate one - others may well be able to add to/improve on this explanation, but hope it helps!

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To Kumar, thank you very much for explaining what BHZ is all about. I tried to find information on Alamy but without any luck. I have downloaded your info in case I need to read it again. Once again Thanks